Coke wastewater is a highly toxic industrial effluent which is usually treated by a combination of physico-chemical and biological treatments. With the aim of completing prior studies carried out in CSTR, in this work we studied the treatment of coke wastewater in a pilot plant equipped with a 400 L stripping tank, a 350 L neutralization/homogenization tank and a 6 m high 1500 L sequential batch reactor (SBR), controlled by a PLC. Ammonia stripping efficiencies of 96% were obtained for HRT of 66 h. The biological treatment in the SBR led to removal efficiencies of 85% COD, 98% thiocyanate and 99% phenols for HRT of 115 h. Final concentrations in the effluent of 1.8 mg phenols/L, 5.4 mg SCN/L, 206 mg COD/L and 78 mg N-NH4+/L were obtained. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.